2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Crazy pumpkin / Bryonia alba / is a perennial, climbing, monoecious herbaceous plant of the Pumpkin family / Cucurbitaceae /. Crazy pumpkin is also known as wild pumpkin, briona, white pumpkin, black scraper, yabankabak and others.
The root of the plant is turnip-shaped, fleshy, yellowish on the outside, white on the inside, transversely wrinkled, with a very bitter taste. The stem of the mad pumpkin is creeping, up to 4 m long, with a whiskers to attach to surrounding objects. The leaves are consecutive, with five-lobed petioles rough with long stalks. The female flowers are collected 4–10 in thyroid inflorescences on a stalk 1.5–5.5 cm long, in the axils of the lower leaves.
The calyx and corolla are five-part. The calyx tube reaches 4 mm, with narrow triangular teeth, 1.5–3 mm long, in female flowers they are equal to the corolla. Petals 3.5–5.0 mm long, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, bluish-yellow to yellowish-white, densely fibrous, with 4–6 green convex veins. The stamens are 5 in number - one free, and the others fused 2 by 2. The ovary is lower, with one column and bare stigmas. The wild pumpkin has a globular fruit, first green, then cherry, smooth, with 4 - 6 seeds.
The crazy pumpkin blooms in the summer months. The plant is found in Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Central Asia and others. places. In our country the wild pumpkin grows in wet places, near rivers, bushes, fences like a weed all over the country, but relatively rarely up to 1000 m above sea level. In the past, the plant was grown and cultivated in Western and Northern Europe.
Types of crazy pumpkin
There are 12 varieties of wild pumpkin in the United States. In Bulgaria, besides the crazy pumpkin, there is another species - Bryonia dioica Jacq. (yellow wild pumpkin). It is a perennial climbing plant, common in Central and Southern Europe. This species has a yellow or red fruit, the calyx in female flowers is half shorter than the corolla, the stigma is fibrous.
Composition of crazy pumpkin
All parts of the crazy pumpkin (especially the roots) contain starch, tannins, the alkaloid brionidine, the resin brioresin, with a strong purgative effect. They also contain the very bitter glucoside brionine, the glucosides brionicin, briomarid, briodulcoside, briobioside and brionyl, a little essential oil, the enzymes briones, amylase, invertase and peroxidase.
From the roots of the plant are isolated 4 active substances - elaterin A, elaterin B, cucurbitacin B and cucurbitacin L, with antitumor action. The content of phytosterol and fatty oil was also determined. Root toxicity is due to the glucoside brionine and the alkaloid brionidine. The essential oil in the roots has been found to have bactericidal properties.
Collect and store crazy pumpkin
The roots of the plant are used / Radix Bryoniae /, which are harvested from August to October. Fresh roots are preferable, as older ones have been shown to be less effective. The roots are dug up after ripening the fruits and the aboveground parts of the crazy pumpkin begin to wither. The excavated roots are cut from the above-ground parts, washed carefully, left to drain. Cut into slices longitudinally or transversely for drying.
The prepared material is dried as quickly as possible in ventilated rooms on frames or in dryers at a temperature of up to 40 degrees, taking great care to dry the roots well. From 7 kg of fresh roots 1 kg of dry is obtained. The dried roots of the mad pumpkin are yellowish-gray on the outside, white on the inside, with a very bitter taste. Dried drugs should be stored in dry and ventilated rooms separately from other herbs, as it is poisonous.
Benefits of crazy pumpkin
The crazy pumpkin is widely used in medicine. The herb is used in acute and chronic inflammation of the respiratory organs, it is also used in conditions characterized by dryness of the mucous membranes, meningitis, dry cough, increased thirst, headaches and limbs. Crazy pumpkin eliminates hoarseness and pain in the throat, trachea, chest and limbs.
The herb has clinically proven efficacy in acute inflammation of the respiratory organs. The use of mad gourd indicates a good effect at the onset of viral diseases, and helps with joint pain. The drug has an antiseptic, laxative, diuretic effect.
The herb has a laxative and disinfectant effect. It is also used for epilepsy, paralysis, neuralgia, shortness of breath, whooping cough. Externally used for compresses for headaches, rubs for rheumatism, mixed with ointment is used to lubricate burns and scabies.
The herb is an excellent means of dispersing the fluids accumulated in the ascid, it is an anthelmintic in roundworms. For external use, it is recommended to apply paws for enlarged lymph nodes, pleurisy and especially for neuralgia.
Veterinary folk medicine also recommends the use of the drug crazy pumpkin in the form of crushed fresh roots added to the diet as an effective remedy against sore throat in pigs.
Due to the large amount of starch contained in the roots, they can also be used to produce alcohol.
Folk medicine with a crazy pumpkin
In Bulgarian folk medicine the crazy pumpkin is used in small doses as a purgative and diuretic in the form of infusion. Pour 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped mad pumpkin root with 2 teaspoons of boiling water. Drink the liquid for 2 days.
Externally alcoholic extract of fresh root is applied as a revulsive / stimulating blood flow to the skin / means as follows: 1 teaspoon of well-mashed root is mixed with 100 ml of oil or pure olive oil and the resulting mixture is rubbed in rheumatoid arthritis. When performing this recipe, act very carefully and do not smear large parts of the sore spot.
In case of whooping cough, 1 teaspoon of the herb roots is boiled in 500 ml of water and 1 cup is drunk 3 times a day.
In rheumatism, our folk medicine recommends drinking an alcoholic extract of the roots in a ratio of 1:10. Drink three times a day, 1 cup, in which 10-15 drops are dropped.
In rheumatism, bruising, gout and other muscle and joint pain apply crushed roots of porridge with vegetable oil or tincture in a ratio of 1: 1. Crushed fresh roots are also used without dissolving in vegetable oil.
In dry cough, shortness of breath and epilepsy can be applied, but with caution, a decoction of crushed roots. 1 teaspoon of them is boiled with 1/2 liter of water. Drink 1 tablespoon to 1/2 cup before eating.
Harm from the crazy pumpkin
The crazy pumpkin it should not be used as a medicine without medical supervision, as the whole plant is poisonous. The poisonous substances of the herb strongly irritate the tissues, causing agitation, after which paralysis of the central nervous system occurs.
Drug overdose can lead to kidney damage or cause bloody diarrhea. Rubbing the skin with fresh root can cause blisters.
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